Ignition boxes

[Clod_King]

Pitter-patter let's get at 'er

So I'm back in the same dilemma as before. It says in the instructions that the box can be mounted anyway except upside down because of a lack of drainage holes at the top of the case. It also says to keep the unit away from heat (duh) and to NOT mount it in an enclosed space ei: the glove box. So hopefully I can squeeze this monster up under the bulkhead like dursleyman has his set up. But I wonder if I could get into the front clip area if it is in fact too large. I could make a baffle to discourage water from getting at it directly and it would be very hidden in there... hmmmmm

Also side note: I was planning on doing a partial rewiring on the car and when I was looking around in the glove box I got discouraged. It's a freaking mess in there. Whoever got their dirty little dick-beaters in there last time really left me quite the mess. Is there a standard square version of the blue relay found in the glove box? It looks to be normally open? Is that what I'm getting from the little stick picture?

Edit: I found that the blue relay is for the starter. Information attained, and I am assuming if I take it to a parts store or an electronics store they would be able to supply me with a similar unit in standard black square shape. Down with blue, hahaha.

[John_C]

Accuspark fits inside the distributor. Top engine builder and tuner Graham Rawlings of Rawspeed installed mine after he'd bent my ear about it for a year or two and with the 40th Anniversary Run looming (about 1000 miles for us down here in the arse end of nowhere) and the cost only being around £40 it seemed like it was worth another try. Actually, now that I think about it I think it's a re-branded Accuspark and actually came with another name but it's the same little unit that is put inside the distributor on a paste heat sink.

I had electronic ignition in my TR7 32 years ago and soldiered on with it for about five years. It was a constant source of trouble and after it caused the third breakdown a friendly RAC man agreed to put the car back to points and condenser. All those reliability issues disappeared. However, that was a Piranha ignition system and it was so bad I carried a complete replacement kit around with me such was the poor quality back then. So it was interesting to see at least one Piranha is still going after all these years in Dursleyman's car. The Accuspark (or variation of) has remained in my car since the Anniversary Run but I do carry an original standard distributor so I can swap out the complete unit at the side of the road if the worst happens. Of course, getting the thing in the right way around and not 180 degrees reversed is always the interesting part.

[Beans]

Mine is on the bulkhead, tucked away up in the right side corner ...

Great minds think alike
Looks like the Newtronic ignition I have on the car is an adaption of the original Piranha?

[saabfast]

If the Summit unit retains the points (and condenser?) what is the advantage? It the points that are a pain to keep adjusted. I have had the Pertronix in my car for around 5 years or more and never looked at it. As far as I now the Accuspark is basically the same. At the time I looked at them but you needed to take the distributor apart to fit the trigger wheel for the Accuspark (was easy to fit to my sons Viva but that has a normal/sensible distributor instead of an upside down thing), the Pertronix was easy and just replaced the points and condenser. You don't even have to remove the dizzy. It was the MR-LS2 I fitted. I think the Accuspark now fits in a similar way.
Like John, I still carry the old parts 'in case' but have never needed them.

[Clod_King]

"If the Summit unit retains the points (and condenser?) what is the advantage?"

The summit box does a multiple spark up 3000 or 3500 rpm. I forget. It really smooths out the idle but it does hide things as well. When I installed it on my truck the carb was over jetted by a few sizes and did not idle or drive well at all. BUT the box kind of evened it out. I had to buy a variety of jets and got it to run much better but I had to unhook the summit box because it really hid a lot of things once the jetting got close to being right.

So one has to be careful with those multi spark setups. Maybe disable it occasionally to hear and feel how the engine actually runs.

[Clod_King]

Well I'm gonna drag this dead thread back into the living. I don't like making new threads unless I need to.

I ordered the Ignitor II to use as a signal unit for my summit racing MSI ignition box. I picked up part# 9MR-LS2. It's the wrong one. I probably should've returned it but I got caught up in doing things and now I don't think that I can now that its been a couple months or so.

As anyone with eyes can see it says LUCAS right there, plain as daylight.

Lucas Distributor1.jpg (199.84 KiB) Viewed 9347 times

What I should have order was part# 9LU-147A, which is for the LUCAS distributor that my car has...

Lucas Distributor2.jpg (181.46 KiB) Viewed 9347 times

So here is my question: Are the electronic bits the same and its just the plate that is different?? Also, Why do I need this thing if the distributor has electronic ignition in the first place. I only need something to send a signal, so is it worth it to retrofit this pertronix unit (which I ordered incorrectly) to my dizzy if I do not need to do so?

I dunno, maybe the ignitor II performs better than the lucas one. I'm not sure, but what I do know is that I don't want to waste time making a new plate if I do not need to. Anyone got any suggestions?

[andyf]

I assume you are in the USA? If you have electronic ignition already and it works, I wouldn`t touch it even if I could figure out how to fit it The Pertronix kit is made to replace points and condenser which on a Delco distributor are notoriously difficult to get at to adjust at service time - if you had a Delco distributor you would understand why, which is why they are a popular upgrade for us Delco guys.

[John_C]

My electronic ignition just packed up but it was the best I've ever had as it lasted almost three years.

Back to points and condenser and the car is running better than it ever did with electronic but this does mean the dwell angle has to be adjusted to keep it that way.

[dursleyman]

My electronic ignition just packed up but it was the best I've ever had as it lasted almost three years.

Back to points and condenser and the car is running better than it ever did with electronic but this does mean the dwell angle has to be adjusted to keep it that way.

That is a pretty poor record John, what on earth electronic units have you been trying?

[Clod_King]

I'm in Canada, but the cars are the same essentially I guess. Maybe I'll leave it for now and just sit on the part. I've been thinking about pulling the extra distributer that I own and just tinker with it. Maybe during that time I will have the gumption to fiddle with mounting the unit. So far as I've read Lucas electronics should not be trusted, so maybe a fall back plan is a good idea...

[John_C]

Russ, the recent one is Accuspark but when I first tried electronic back in 1985 it was the dreaded Piranha ignition. I had two of those before completely giving up on it. I'll try another of the Accuspark units at some point but next time I'll hopefully know when the unit is beginning to fail. Starting had become more work than usual and to keep everything in tune meant retarding the ignition slightly. But these little Accuspark jobbies are cheap, throwaway items really so perhaps it's just a question of 10,000 to 12,000 miles and replace.

The car does seem to be immediately better on points though and that is why I think I should try another electronic just to check that for certain. Swapping the distributor is an easy job so it's not much time nor expense to carry our this check.

[dursleyman]

Russ, the recent one is Accuspark but when I first tried electronic back in 1985 it was the dreaded Piranha ignition. I had two of those before completely giving up on it.

John, I have got everything crossed as I write this, but I have had a Piranha unit on my car for the past five years and so far so good.............

[Beans]

I have a Newtronic unit (which as far as I know is the successor to Piranha) on 't Kreng (Sprint engined).
At least it looks exactly the same as the piranha unit. And it is still going strong after 20 years (fingers firmly crossed).
The Luminition unit in the 8 valve engined DHC dates back even further, to 1994 to be precise. So looks like you are very unfortunate.

[John_C]

My Piranha's were over 30 years ago and I soon found out they had a very poor reputation then. Hopefully they did a lot of re-engineering to make it reliable. I think the latest electronic failure is due to the heat in the engine and where the distributor is sited but I'll only find out by trying a second unit. The point is, I think I will be able to spot when it starts to fail next time, if indeed it does.

[dursleyman]

John, I thought I would check my Piranha spares and look what it says on the packing, wonder if it explains your failures?



Hoping I have enough spare stuff here - just in case!